1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for holding overlapping portions of clothing together securely and, more particularly, with a clothing securing device.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the past, a method for reducing the amount of sliding of one portion or article of clothing with respect to an overlapping portion or article has been to arrange fabric having an irregular surface on the insides of the overlapping portion or article of clothing, such as pants and other apparel. While such an arrangement might retard the movement of one piece of fabric or article with respect to another piece of fabric or article of a person's clothing, the use of such a device will not releaseably fix one piece of fabric or article of clothing with respect to the next. Additions such as belt loops on pants and skirts position the belt in a prescribed position with respect to the skirt or pants; however, the blouse or shirt must still be tucked into and beneath the waist of the pants or skirt and be held there frictionally.
Another method has been to use VELCRO.RTM. on shoes for holding two straps of the shoe in overlapping relationship in place of or in addition to shoe strings so as to tighten the mouth of the shoe to keep the shoe from falling off of the foot.
A third method has been used mainly on children's clothing. With children's clothing, there are sometimes provided a plurality of circumferentially spaced buttons and buttonholes or circumferentially spaced buttons and flaps or tabs containing button holes. The clothing can be folded over and the button can be engaged in the buttonhole in order to fix the relative positions of overlapping portions of the clothing. Generally, the buttons and buttonholes, flaps or tabs are located on the waist portion of the children's clothing.
A further method has been the use of suspenders, which button or clamp to pants or skirt and hold the pants or skirt in the proper position because of resilient straps which pass over the shoulders of the wearer. These suspenders do not provide for positive positioning of a skirt with respect to a blouse or a pair of pants with respect to a shirt, but merely hold the pants or skirt at a predetermined desired height relative to the body.
Frictionally held shirts and blouses have a tendency to slide when a person sits down or leans over so that the shirttail or blouse tail will pull out from beneath a skirt or pair of pants. This would not be a problem if the shirttail or blouse tail would return to its original position; however, it is well known that this does not occur without human interdiction. In the absence of a sufficient number of belt loops, belts also tend to ride up and away from the waist of a skirt or pair of pants when a person, wearing the belt, leans over.
The present invention solves the problem of maintaining overlapped pieces of clothing, such as a belt, in an appropriate position with respect to a skirt or pair of pants, and also solves the problem of retaining a belt, or a blouse or shirt, in an appropriate position with respect to a pair of pants or a skirt or another article of clothing.